The widespread benefits in using email, web and e-commerce as business-critical applications has changed the world dramatically. However, such a reliance on these tools has also exposed individuals and companies to threats such as email viruses, against which there are only limited answers. Anti-virus programs that run on email servers or on work stations are well known and the most common form of virus protection. The companies that sell the anti-virus programs respond to new viruses by creating and disseminating definition files which then must be installed on the server or work station running the anti-virus program. The creation and dissemination of the definition files, while prompt, still occurs after the virus has begun to spread and relies entirely on system administrators and users to download and install the definition files. With viruses such as the infamous “I Love You” virus, the delay involved in getting definition files installed, when they are installed at all, is devastating, allowing enormous damage to be done.
None of the current anti-virus solutions allows simple virus recognition signatures to be quickly disseminated to equipment within the network itself. Viruses detected at wire speeds in the network could be inoculated, such that they are harmless when received by the recipient. Such a system would allow network providers themselves to be the first line of defense against virus attacks.
Accordingly, what is needed is a network device that can scan network traffic at wire speeds, recognize emails potentially infected with viruses, and inoculate any attachment, such that any virus in the attachment is destroyed.